Aa. Baidak et al., SIMULTANEOUS INTERPENETRATING POLYMER NETWORKS BASED ON EPOXY-ACRYLATE COMBINATIONS, Journal of polymer science. Part B, Polymer physics, 35(12), 1997, pp. 1973-1984
Simultaneous interpenetrating polymer networks (SINs) based on epoxy/p
oly(n-butyl acrylate) systems were synthesized at 120 degrees C. The p
olymerization kinetics were studied both in situ by Fourier Transform
Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). Three key events occurred during the po
lymerization, namely the gelation of the network I, gelation of the ne
twork II, and phase separation of one polymer from the other. Thus, me
tastable phase diagrams describing the relations between the three eve
nts were constructed. Three-dimensional tetrahedrons characterizing th
e four-component system (the two monomers and the two polymers) allow
the visualization of these three key events and also define some criti
cal points, for example, the loci of the points where simultaneous gel
ation of the two networks occurs. The inside of the tetrahedron was al
so investigated using partially reacted model compounds. These tetrahe
drons can be used as guidelines for setting up a synthesis strategy le
ading to desired morphologies. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.